I have a vague childhood memory of my dad plopping me on a pony for a photo op at the state fair. Besides that, I’d never so much as petted a horse. That all changed one a recent weekend when my boyfriend and I went horseback riding for the first time.

Prior to our horse-filled day, I contacted Dream A Horse, which is a horse rental company outside of Eagle, Wisconsin. I booked a one-hour guided ride on the Kettle Morraine trail. The owner, Owen, emailed me a map of the dream a horse eagle parking lot, which was to be our meeting spot before the ride.

Dream A Horse currently offers one-hour Kettle Moraine Trail rides for $30 and three-hour Eagle Trail rides for $60. For my first time, I figured one hour on a horse would be plenty.

This family-owned business was run efficiently and the guides had the horses ready to go when we arrived at the trail head. Stairs were set up to assist us in mounting the horses, which was considerably more challenging than cowboy movies lead us to believe.

The guides instructed us about “horse commands” to tell the horse when to turn, when to halt, and when to get a move on. I never really felt like my horse, Scarlett, ever truly understood me. Perhaps it was it was my unfamiliar voice or the uncertainty of my tone. Or perhaps she and I just didn’t see eye to eye.

I can’t honestly say that Scarlett, ever went very fast. But that didn’t mean that I wasn’t nervous about her bucking me off at every turn. I had visions of myself being thrown off of her back and trampled in a horrific accident. Fortunately, Scarlett didn’t share my fears and trotted along in methodical form.

My boyfriend was somehow more comfortable on his horse, Prince, despite his equal lack in horse experience. Regardless, both of us are looking forward to more horseback riding in the near future. Since winter is approaching, we are thinking some snowy trails might be nice…as long as someone re-teaches me all those horse commands.